True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation

Schmidt Number: S-5879

On-line since: 31st May, 2010

We began
these lectures with an enquiry into our normal dream life and from
here we moved on to a consideration of further states of
consciousness which enable us to enter into worlds other than the one
we inhabit between birth and death. Finally we discussed mediumistic
consciousness, the consciousness which man experiences in a
somnambulistic condition, for the mediumistic state is always of this
nature.

Now both
kinds of experience, those of the dream and of somnambulism, are
conditions of the soul which are also found in their true form in
normal life. It is only when they are intensified that they lead into
true or false channels.

Today we
will examine our dream life once again. We have seen that when man in
normal consciousness passes over from the waking state into sleep, he
is subject to dreams and that his astral body registers during the
latter state an after-vibration of his experiences in the etheric and
physical bodies. Then follow the chaotic, indeed extraordinary
dream-experiences which only an Initiate can rightly interpret,
because the man who does not penetrate more deeply into the nature of
the spiritual world is simply bewildered by these normally chaotic
experiences.

But we have
also seen how, through exercises in meditation and
concentration, the weft of dream life can be interwoven with
the woof of higher consciousness. We therefore envisage man
transplanted into the chaotic and wondrous world of dream; but he
remains fully conscious in this dream life which is as real to him as
ordinary life. Then he gains insight into another world where he can
accompany the dead in their after-death existence. He feels that a
world of much greater reality than our present world envelops him.
The question now is: what is the real nature of the world he now
contacts? I have already spoken about this, but today I would like to
touch upon this question from a different angle.

I described
how there once lived on Earth illustrious teachers who did not
inhabit physical bodies, but only subtle etheric bodies, and were
able therefore to incarnate in the ether surrounding the Earth. They
instructed men through Inspiration and laid the foundations of the
primordial culture on Earth. When we look back into these
ancient times with the appropriate condition of consciousness, we
find these primeval spiritual teachers sharing the life of mankind.
Then they withdrew to the Moon sphere and today are only to be found
in this sphere where they have subjected to their purposes all manner
of beings who have never lived on Earth. They live amongst these
elementary beings and work upon human beings who have passed through
the gates of death, instructing them how to acquit themselves in
relation to their karma. These are the Beings with whom we are
concerned when we first enter the spiritual world. Just as we cannot
ignore society and social relationships in our life on Earth, so we
must cooperate with these other Beings in order to attain higher
knowledge. And it is with the help of these Moon Beings who were once
the primeval teachers of humanity on Earth and the beings whom they
have taken into their service, that we investigate the spiritual
world immediately adjacent to our own. It is there that we find the
key to earlier Earth epochs and to the earlier incarnations of
human beings. We can then discover personalities who once lived on
Earth and with whom we either had, or had not, karmic connections. In
order to illustrate this, I pointed out how, by further developing
this level of consciousness, we gradually contact earthly
beings such as Brunetto Latini, Dante, Alanus ab Insulis and
others who are no longer incarnated on Earth today.

This state
of consciousness is therefore an illumination, a translucence of the
dream state. In ordinary life the dream state represents, so to
speak, only the rudimentary beginnings of this state. Now it is
very easy to show the difference between the Initiate and the man
living at the ordinary level of consciousness.

Under normal
conditions of sleep man's physical and etheric bodies are left
behind, whilst his astral body and Ego are outside his body. In the
dream state experience is solely the province of the Ego. The
occurrences experienced in the dream belong, it is true, to the
astral body which is still outside the physical and etheric bodies,
but in terms of ordinary consciousness only the Ego can experience
the dream.

The
Initiate, however, experiences with his Ego and especially with
his astral body. The difference, therefore, between the Initiate and
the ordinary dreamer is that the latter only experiences with his Ego
when he is outside his physical and etheric bodies, whilst the
Initiate experiences with his astral body as well.

Now this
mode of perception was developed to a high degree, especially in the
ancient Mysteries, for the purpose of investigating the super-sensible
worlds. It was further developed in a decadent form throughout the
Middle Ages and later epochs. In modern times it has virtually
disappeared. Isolated individuals, either by spiritual means or
through tradition, have always received instruction from the ancient
teachers in the Mysteries how to remain fully conscious in ordinary
dream life. Individuals have at all times been able to penetrate into
these worlds, but the attempt is fraught with danger. When the
Initiate with Imaginative Knowledge is immersed in the normal dream
world, he immediately has the feeling that he is losing touch with
the physical world, that he is losing consciousness and sinking into
a void. He feels as if solid ground were slipping from under his
feet, as if he were no longer subject to the force of gravity. He
experiences a feeling of inner release, a feeling that he is being
swept away into a cosmic ocean, that he might easily lose control
over himself because he is no longer firmly anchored.

The purpose
of the spiritual exercises described in my book,
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds,
is to obviate this danger. Whoever undertakes
these meditations in the right way will find that he develops
“wings” of the soul and that, having overcome gravity, he
can now take wing. When the Initiate loses the physical and etheric
ground beneath his feet and has not yet developed the
“wings” of the astral body and Ego, a dangerous situation
arises. Though I express myself figuratively you will understand my
meaning. The dangers are real enough. If we prepare ourselves
assiduously for the world we enter as a result of these exercises,
all possibility of danger is excluded. We can gradually participate
in these worlds just as we participate in the physical world through
our physical and etheric bodies.

This was
more or less the condition of man in earliest times. Today we have to
achieve this condition through the practice of spiritual exercises.
The make-up of primordial man was such that, in contrast to our
waking consciousness, he enjoyed a natural condition of spiritual
vision such as I have described amongst the Chaldeans and a condition
that could not be equated with our dream state, but was a form of
Imaginative perception. When confronted by another human being a man
perceived not only his physical contours, but had a dreamlike
impression of the aura around him. It was the true aura, not merely a
subjective illusion. In addition to this gift for perceiving the aura
of the physical body, he also possessed another faculty —
for both are related to each other — which enabled him to
perceive the aura of a spiritual being who is not incarnated in a
physical body. And then he dreamed the form of the spiritual
being.

Note the
difference: if, in ancient times, a man looked at his physical
counterpart, he imagined in a true dream the aura around him. If he
met with a spiritual being, an Angel or an elementary being, he had,
from the first, a spiritual perception of the aura and
‘dreamed’ the form belonging to it.

This is how
the earliest painters worked, but we are unaware of it today.
These painters saw the spiritual beings and ‘dreamed’ the
corresponding forms. They depicted the Beings of the hierarchy of the
Angels almost in the likeness of human beings, the Archangels with
unsubstantial bodies, but with clearly defined wings and head; and
the Archai solely with a winged head because this was the form they
‘dreamed.’ These insights were as natural to men of
ancient times as it is natural to us today to see another's physical
features. Since man has gradually lost his clairvoyance, he must
reacquire it through spiritual training. But as clairvoyance
was natural to primitive man, and relatively easy to regain through
spiritual training, it has been the subject of extensive
investigation over the years. There has always been an active
interest in the world ruled by the Moon Beings and the Initiates of
the ancient Mysteries, who were the true investigators, have much to
say of this world, of their encounter with the dead, of the
investigation into the Moon sphere and how the world appears from the
perspective of the Moon sphere.

Copernicus
established his heliocentric system from the point of view of the
terrestrial consciousness only. The old Ptolemaic system is not
erroneous; seen from the perspective of the consciousness of the Moon
sphere its findings are correct. Now it is a characteristic of these
investigators, i.e. the Initiates of the Moon sphere, that their
activities are restricted to that sphere.

It is common
knowledge to all of you that the present Anthroposophical Society was
formerly a part of the Theosophical Society. The Theosophical Society
which is similar to many societies of a kindred nature that have been
founded in the course of recent years, has accumulated an abundant
literature. If you refer to this literature you will find —
whether rightly or wrongly is immaterial for the moment — that
it describes the world of which I am now speaking, the Moon sphere,
the world that we investigate in conjunction with the Moon Beings.
When it was proposed that I should work in the Theosophical Society
it had important implications for me — although I was faced
with certain difficulties at first, for in the Theosophical Society I
found investigations and a literature which were limited solely to
this Moon sphere. Undoubtedly this material contains much that
is incorrect, but much that is highly important and unique,
especially in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky. But everything
to be found in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky is determined by her
association with the Moon sphere and her relationship with Initiates
who elected to stay behind in this Moon sphere as an act of
sacrifice.

I can assure
you that I have come to know many of these Initiates and how such
spirits penetrate into the Moon sphere but are indifferent to man's
desire to develop further.

When
I wrote my book,
Occult Science — an Outline,
in the years between 1906 and 1909, I described the Earth in its earlier
incarnations of Moon, Sun and Saturn.
[See Chapter IV:
Man and the Evolution of the World.]
My description did not end with the Moon incarnation; I traced the
Earth incarnation as far back as the Saturn incarnation, whereas all
the Initiates who spoke of these matters concluded their account
between Moon and Sun; in reality, they traced the Earth incarnation
only as far back as to the Moon sphere. Any suggestion that they
should look back to still earlier incarnations of the Earth was met
with indifference, sometimes even with a sense of disquiet.
They declared this to be impossible, for the path was blocked by an
insuperable barrier. It was of course, most important and not
without interest to understand the reason for this. It soon
became apparent on closer acquaintance that these Initiates had
an aversion, an antipathy to the modern scientific outlook.
When these Initiates were introduced to the ideas of Darwin, Haeckel
and their followers they became most indignant and regarded them as
childish and stupid and refused to have any truck with them. They
were less antipathetic to the ideas of Goethe at first, but
ultimately they found that he too spoke the language of the modern
scientist and then they dismissed the whole affair.

In short,
one could not appeal to the Initiates with such ideas. And it was in
the years 1906 to 1909 when I first steeped myself in modern
scientific ideas in order to impregnate them with Imaginations
that I found it possible to penetrate to the Sun and Saturn spheres.
I did not use these scientific concepts as a method of cognition
after the fashion of Haeckel or Huxley, but as an inner motivation in
order to overcome the limitations to which the Initiates were subject
at a time when the modern scientific outlook did not yet exist and
when therefore one could achieve higher consciousness only by
impregnating the dream-world with Imaginations. In writing my
Occult Science
I attempted to imbue with inner meaning the fully conscious scientific
outlook of Huxley and others which normally is only associated
with the external world, and to impregnate the Imaginative world with
it. Then it was possible to understand this whole sequence of Saturn,
Sun and Moon and to investigate on Earth the old
Initiate-knowledge.

I am
describing this path to knowledge in order that you may understand
how these things arise. You may perhaps say that this is a personal
interpretation. But in this case the personal element is, in fact,
wholly objective. The criticism directed against my book
Occult Science
is that it is written like a mathematical text-book, that I sought to
avoid subjective interpretation and that I described with
mathematical detachment the whole path of development I have been
discussing. None the less this path is precisely as I have described
it. Its origin lay in the circumstance that the modality of thought
which has existed since the time of Copernicus and Galileo and which
was enriched by Goethe was combined with the same disposition of soul
that is normally present in Imagination. Thus it was possible
to trace back this sphere that had always been accessible to the
Initiates, to its origin in Saturn.

From this
example you will appreciate perhaps how important it is to approach
these matters not in a vague, haphazard fashion, but with clear and
conscious deliberation, to introduce a note of caution where
thoughtlessness so easily takes over. Under normal conditions the
dream life is in contact with the Ego only, but here we have an
example where it contacts the astral body also.

To the
question: what is the difference between modern natural science and
the information I have given in
Occult Science?
I would reply: the modern scientist can only appeal to the Ego and begins
to dream the moment he surrenders his Ego, whilst I was able to take over
into the dream life the concepts of natural science, to direct the astral
body into the worlds I had to describe.

This is a
path which can be described to you exactly and will serve as an
example to indicate perhaps more precisely how the true paths differ
from the false.

The
condition diametrically opposed to the dream state is that of
somnambulism and mediumism. The dreamer lives wholly in his Ego and
astral body. Even though he has no conscious perceptions in the
astral body, he nevertheless lives within it. He lives wholly in his
Ego and astral body outside his physical and etheric bodies. He is
thrust down into, immersed in his own being, and his own being is
then affiliated to other worlds. Thus the dreamer is submerged, so to
speak, in his own being and hence is immersed in the Cosmos and, to a
certain extent also in his physical organism.

The precise
opposite is the case with the medium and somnambulist. Man is only in
a mediumistic or somnambulistic condition when his Ego and
astral body are outside his physical and etheric bodies; but in this
case, as I have pointed out, his Ego and astral body are possessed by
an alien being.

Thus we have
the medium or somnambulist with his physical being, but the Ego
and astral body are outside the physical and etheric bodies. The Ego
and astral body are suppressed, for another being takes them over.
Consequently the medium cannot influence the physical and etheric
bodies in the right way. Even when we are in dreamless sleep, for
instance, we exert an effect upon the physical and etheric bodies. In
waking life we permeate our physical and etheric bodies from within;
in sleep we protect them from incursions from without.

This no
longer applies to the somnambulist. The medium or somnambulist has no
control over his physical and etheric bodies; they are, so to speak,
deserted territory.

When a man
is endowed with the constitution of soul that is normal for our time,
it is the forces of the plants and minerals alone that have an
influence upon his physical and etheric bodies. If the forces of the
minerals, i.e. of the mineral Earth, did not influence our
physical body, we should be unable to walk or move around, because we
are dependent upon these forces. It is permissible to share the
world of the mineral forces; that is the normal condition, but they
must not enter into the etheric body.

The same
applies to the plants. It is permissible for the forces of the plants
still to work to a certain extent upon the etheric body, although not
too strongly. But the forces that stimulate sensation in the animal
and the forces of another human being should no longer be permitted
to influence the physical body of man, and especially his etheric
body. Because the physical and etheric bodies of the medium or
somnambulist are deserted, the animal and terrestrial human forces
work upon the medium or somnambulist. The physical and etheric bodies
become influenced by suggestion. Just as thought passes from
the dream into the environment, so in this case the will is detached
from the human being and merges into the environment. We can suggest
to the medium or somnambulist that he should stand up and walk; if we
offer him a potato we can suggest that it is a tasty pear and so on.
As human beings when we suggestionize the medium or somnambulist we
make direct contact with the physical body, and hence with the
etheric body. The medium and somnambulist bear within them in their
etheric body their physical environment which should be reflected
only in the physical body, as is the case with normal man. Normal man
therefore surrenders himself in a dreamlike state to his inner
spiritual world, the medium to the external world of
nature.

Now
mediumism or somnambulism is a normal condition in so far as the
condition itself is normal. For the ability to move about, to seize
hold of objects, to be able to perform any kind of external action is
a magico-somnambulistic achievement on the part of everyone. But this
activity must be limited to the physical body; it must not find its
way into the etheric body, otherwise the normal passes over into the
abnormal.

And so the
dreamer lives entirely within his own being; the medium or
somnambulist is outside his being. The physical and etheric
bodies of the medium or somnambulist function somewhat after the
fashion of automata and we can work upon them because his own Ego and
astral body fail to provide for them. Consequently, just as in the
dreamer an inner spiritual world is created, so in the medium or
somnambulist there comes into being a union with the external
world of nature, with the world of form and its origin, with all that
is perceptible and all that is related to space and time.

When we sink
down into the world of dream, we are immersed in the formless, in
that which is in a state of constant transformation. When we
penetrate with our physical and etheric bodies into the world
where the somnambulist or medium is exercising his will under
the influence of suggestion, everything is sharply defined; all that
supervenes as the result of external influence is carried out with
extraordinary precision.

This world
is the exact antithesis of the normal world of dream; in the
somnambulist it is a dream activity, a natural creation externalized.
It is dreaming in action, activity in a dreamlike state, in place of
dreaming in inner experience only.

From the
standpoint of Initiation this antithesis is most interesting and
significant. When the Initiate sinks down into the world of dreams in
order to permeate it with Imaginations he meets with
difficulties. I have already spoken of this. He feels that he is no
longer subject to gravity, that he no longer has firm ground beneath
his feet. When the Initiate enters into this world he must gain
access to it consciously, whilst the somnambulist finds his way into
it unconsciously — he feels that he may at any moment lose
consciousness. He is always faced with this possibility, and he must
take himself firmly in hand so that he maintains full
consciousness. If, as Initiates, we penetrate more deeply into
this world, we must proceed here as sensibly and intelligently as
normal beings in the visible and tangible world. The Initiate must
not betray the fact that, whilst he is living a normal life, he is at
the same time living with full consciousness in a spiritual
world. For were he to imagine for a single moment that he was
detached from the physical world, he would begin to give himself airs
and his fellow men would think him rather odd. And they would say:
what madman is this! This may happen if he does not keep a tight hold
on himself in order to preserve full consciousness as he passes
through the spiritual world which is omnipresent just as the
sensible world is omnipresent.

This opens
up a sphere that has not been dealt with by the Theosophical Society,
but which the “big guns” among the natural scientists
have seized upon, namely, the sphere of psychical research. These
researches are carried out by men with a scientific background and of
limited potentialities who undertake statistical surveys and
who experiment with mediums in order to ascertain the nature of the
spiritual world. In all kinds of societies, and from different
points of view, attempts are now being made to investigate
objectively what processes are involved when a man moves his
limbs or reacts, not with his normal consciousness, but with a
diminished or totally obliterated consciousness, at a time when other
beings have taken possession of his soul. The reactions of those
whose consciousness has been damped down in this way are thus
recorded.

The
suggestion has even been made by enthusiasts for this kind of
investigation that I, together with the fruits of my investigations,
should put myself at their disposal in their laboratories in order
that they may be able to investigate objectively the phenomena of the
inner world. This is about as sensible as if someone were to come
along and say: I understand nothing about mathematics so I cannot say
whether the statements of mathematicians are true or false. The
best thing for him to do would be to come to me in my psychical
laboratory and I will make experiments with him to show whether he is
a great mathematician or not. — That is approximately the
situation. I am here speaking of a field of investigation at the
present time in which no real attempt is being made to penetrate to
the inner being of man, but simply to investigate somnambulism and
mediumism from outside by methods that are a caricature of the
scientific method. For if people really penetrated to the inner being
of man they would realize that in mediumism and somnambulism
they are faced by the external vehicle, an automaton consisting of
physical and etheric bodies; that they are not investigating the
spiritual reality, but that what they wish to investigate has
deserted the external vehicle. They simply refuse to look into the
more subtle aspects of the spiritual world. They often want to
perceive the spiritual, not only through inner experience, but also
in visible and tangible form.

This
approach sometimes assumes other forms as, for example, in the
Theosophical Society, at the very time when I had already described
this path. They were looking for the spiritual figure of Christ in a
physical body. They wanted to find a direct manifestation of the
spiritual in the external world.

We must
accept the physical world as it is and seek the spiritual where it
really exists — in the physical world of course, but
essentially in the spiritual spheres that permeate the physical
world.

Here lies
yet another region. Man in a healthy state feels impelled to bridge
the gap between the region of inner experience and external
perception, between the chaotic world of the dreamer and the abnormal
world of the medium and somnambulist. Art is born of the union of
these two worlds and their mutual fructification. For in art the
external form is imbued with spirit and the spiritual content is
clothed in external form.

Whilst the
Theosophical Society was busy proclaiming an ordinary human being to
be a spiritual entity, we in the Anthroposophical Society were
impelled to direct the occult stream into art. The Mystery Plays
and Eurythmy were born, and the art of Speech Formation was developed.
[See
list of literature]
These and similar developments in the
Anthroposophical Society were the fruits of the impulse to
bridge the gap between the spiritual and the physical, so that
consciousness bridges the chaotic world of dream and the
chaotic world of the medium or somnambulist. In art these two worlds
are consciously merged.

Some day
this will be understood. People will understand the purpose of our
endeavours when Speech Formation, as practised by Frau Marie Steiner,
shall be restored to the level it once enjoyed when men were still
instinctively spiritual. For them rhythm and measure in speech
were more important than empty, abstract diction. These must be
revived again. And Eurythmy restores to us again man unfolding before
us through movement, man as he really is as a being of soul and
spirit. This is what we learn from Eurythmy.

In art,
therefore, we have had first of all to build a bridge from the world
in which the dreamer wanders aimlessly to the world in which the
medium or somnambulist blindly stumbles around. In our present
materialistic age the dreamer is left to his solitary reflections and
knows nothing of configurations and material forms which express and
reveal the spiritual. And the somnambulist lives his life
caring little whether he enjoys a medium's fame or whether he
invents theories of an ideal State like the Bolshevists and, like the
medium, projects all kinds of manifestations into the world around.
Both dreamer and somnambulist share the life of the contemporary
world without the slightest suspicion of the existence of the
spiritual.

It is
essential to find once again the bridge leading from the spirit into
matter and from matter to the spirit. In the sphere of art we must
first build this bridge so that we no longer stumble and drift along
in a semi-conscious state, but develop a sense for art through
spiritual movements which are not of the normal kind. Thus Eurythmy
has its true, inner source in an impulse arising out of Initiation
and all that we practise in the art of Speech Formation stems from
the same source. And when the forthcoming Course on Dramatic
Art is held at Dornach we shall try to restore once again the
spiritual image of dramatic art. For a long time attention has been
focussed on how to present the actor on the stage with a maximum of
realism. In the nineties discussions on this subject were
simply comic. The question was discussed — and naturalism
finally won the day — whether Schiller's characters should
declaim their heroic lines with their hands in their trouser pockets
because that was the contemporary fashion. There is every reason
therefore for finding the right way to explore the spiritual world.
It is a sound principle to follow the path of art.

It is most
important to transcend the ancient Initiation-Science that was
steeped in the Moon mysteries and everything pertaining to them
and to develop that inner condition of soul that can only be
reached when the achievements of natural science — I am
referring in this context to the intellectual conquests of natural
science — can be used to fructify the occult knowledge of the
Initiate. On the other hand, it is equally important to make a
special field of research the confused, dilettante experiments which
are undertaken in order to ascertain what takes place in the
ectoplasmic forms when, in trance condition, the somnambulist
or medium is possessed by elementary beings. For these two paths are
really one and the same, namely, the emergence from within the dream
into conscious dreaming and the conscious apprehension of the
external world which natural science knows only in its mineral
properties — these, so-called psychical research proposes to
explore in its dilettante fashion. Since we live in a
scientific age it is important to pursue this path of spiritual
investigation and also to explore spiritually that other realm which
is the polar opposite of the world of dreams.

The
somnambulist or medium produces phenomena to which we are not
accustomed in ordinary life. His handwriting, movements, speech
and sense of taste are not those of the normal man because his astral
body and Ego are outside the physical and etheric bodies and we are
dealing with a physical and etheric body which are deserted and are
given up to the influence of the Cosmos. We are confronted with
physical and etheric manifestations which do not reflect the normal
workings of nature, but which proceed from the spiritual world. For
after all it is immaterial whether we suggestionize the medium or
whether the medium is subject to some stellar, climatic or metallic
influence which he assimilates into his etheric body.

We must bear
in mind that the vehicles of the medium are at the service of the
spiritual for magical ends. We cannot study these
manifestations without knowledge of the spiritual as the Society for
Psychical Research would like to do by means of external experiments.
We must look into their spiritual relationship. We must observe the
phenomena produced by the medium or somnambulist and the spiritual
basis behind them.

All these
phenomena manifested through the medium or somnambulist are
associated with other mediumistic phenomena. When in trance
condition a medium performs some act under human or cosmic influence,
i.e. when a physical and etheric body perform some act, then this is
temporarily the same as the process which takes place, though
determined by other factors, in the poisonous plants which are
the source of disease in man. It is only the external, transient mask
of disease that is revealed in the mediumistic, somnambulistic
state. From a certain point of view — and we shall have to
discuss this in greater detail in the course of the next lectures
— we can see in the phenomena of mediumism and somnambulism
(there is no necessity to do so, but it is always possible) what is
happening in the person who is ill, because his Ego and astral body
have withdrawn in some abnormal way from an organ, or from the whole
organism, and have been replaced by other spiritual
influences.

Since men
were aware of this relationship in ancient times the Mysteries were
always associated with medicine. And because people were not so
inquisitive as today, they never felt the need to be interested in
mediums and somnambulists, for they were familiar with their
activities just as they were familiar with the conditions of disease.
They approached these matters more from the medical point of view. It
is a standpoint that we must acquire once again.

And the
other path which approaches the spiritual through natural phenomena,
through natural science, in dilettante fashion must be pursued in the
right way. All phenomena and particularly everything that is
expressed through the pathological states of men and animals must be
reviewed again in the right perspective. Only then shall we be in a
position to investigate the phenomena which the Society for Psychical
Research would like to explore.

And this
field of investigation has now been opened up by the Anthroposophical
Society. We have been able to study pathological phenomena in such a
way that through them the door to the spiritual world has been
opened. This has become possible because Dr. Ita Wegman and I
endeavoured to develop along the right lines this field of
investigation that had been ignored by psychical research; and
also because Ita Wegman possesses not only the knowledge of a
qualified doctor, but also those intuitive therapeutic gifts which
lead directly from observation of the clinical picture to spiritual
insight and thence to genuine therapy.

Here, then,
lies the path that must be followed in order to explore the region
that I have indicated. Through our efforts we hope to develop a
genuine Initiation-medicine, which itself is an Initiation-natural
science. Thus the true path, in contradistinction to the many false
paths, will be demonstrated to all. And the first volume of the book
written by Dr. Wegman and myself will indicate the steps that
must be undertaken.
[See
list of literature]

In this
connection it would be well to point out perhaps that the differences
between the true and false paths can best be illustrated by
examples.

I said
previously that a path to art must be found that will link once again
the sphere of the spiritual with the sphere of natural science. I
must now add that it appears to inhere in the conditions of modern
civilization that we shall only find the right path to art when we
have first explored the right path in relation to the investigation
of natural phenomena, the path of spiritual science. For in the
sphere of art today mankind is so far removed from building the
bridge of which I have spoken that it can only be persuaded of the
active permeation of art by the spirit when it can be finally
convinced of the activity of the spiritual that can be seen
especially in the genesis of the pathological; when there is clear
evidence of how the spirit operates and reveals itself in matter.
When mankind becomes aware of the activity of the spiritual in the
kingdom of nature, then it may perhaps be possible to arouse
sufficient wholehearted enthusiasm for the idea that the spiritual
can be presented directly to the world in the form of works of
art.